Bound by a Breakable Thread
by PrincessDaydream77
Summary: Narcissa Malfoy sits up late, waiting for her husband to come home. While she is waiting, she thinks about her family and how fragile the binds are that keep them together.


Bound By A Breakable Thread

Summary : Narcissa Malfoy sits up late, waiting for her husband to come home. While she is waiting, she thinks about her family and how fragile the binds are that keep them together.

Disclaimer : The characters aren't mine. They belong to Queen Rowling. I'm just having a bit of fun.

Every time was the same routine. They would eat dinner as a family, she would read Draco one of 'The Tales of Beedle The Bard', then they would retire to their room for the night. Then they would be woken in the middle of the night as the pain shot through Lucius's forearm, summoning him to his 'Lord'. Lucius would disentangle himself from his wife's embrace, pull on his black robes and make for the door, kissing his wife's cheek as he left. He always told her to return to bed, to try and get some sleep, but she had never listened before. She wasn't listening then, either.

Narcissa Black-Malfoy was sat on the emerald velvet window seat at the far end of the drawing room. She used to come and sit there as a child, visiting Malfoy Manor for the Malfoy Christmas Ball, pretending to listen to her elder sister babbling on about a boy called Tom, even though her boyfriend's name was Rodolphus, but her eyes never leaving the face of the handsome blonde boy standing in the corner of the room, greeting the never ending list of guests with his parents. That was the night that sparks had flown between the fifteen year old boy and the small blonde girl one year his junior. That was why she loved that seat. It offered her comfort in a way that few other things could, and she really needed comfort right then.

Her happiness was shattered by a thought that entered her mind; What if he doesn't come back? What if he is killed in the battle? What will happen to me if he doesn't return? Her mind drifted to her one-year-old son, sound asleep in his cot, with his namesake toy clutched in his pudgy little hand. Narcissa had always been considered as a very strong person, and thus was more than capable of looking after herself without her husband, but things were different this time. If Lucius was killed, she would not be left alone. She would be left with a child that depended on her entirely. She thought of going to her parents for help, but decided against it. They both loved her so very much, but she was afraid that they would think her weak if she went to them for help. Lucius' parents were both dead by then, so she couldn't turn to them either. Andromeda or Sirius? No! That was absolutely out of the question, she couldn't even allow herself to concider it for a moment, no matter how much she may have wanted to. And Bellatrix had been incarcerated in Azkaban a mere three days earlier, for assisting in the capture and torture of the Auror Frank Longbottom and his wife, Alice. What would she do, if she had nowhere to turn?

Suddenly, she heard a whooshing noise and a creak of a door. She dove for the mantelpiece and procured her wand from it's stand there, pointing it directly at the door. She suddenly thought of Draco, but remembered that she had put a locking charm on it that could only be unlocked by her wand, no matter how much force was implemented on it. Turning back to the door, she saw that it was wide open and she was no longer alone in the room. Leaning on the door frame was a masked figure draped in a black overcloak. 'A Death Eater!' she thought, raising her wand once more. But then she looked closer, close enough to recognise the coal black silk draped around them, the detailed mask that she had seen so many times before, the few tendrils of platinum hair falling from the hood as the mask was cast aside to reveal the battle worn face she knew so well.

"Lucius!" she screamed, hurtling to the door frame and being swept off the floor, crying into her husband's embrace. After they had calmed down slightly, they walked down to the green velvet plush sofa.

"Where were you? I was terrified, you were supposed to be back hours ago."

"The Dark Lord has disappeared, Cissa. He killed the Potters, but the child destroyed him. He's gone, Cissa, we're free!" he finished with a smile, leaning back onto the arm of the sofa as he pulled his wife to lie back, her head in his lap as he stroked her hair soothingly. They stayed like that for a long while, until Narcissa pulled herself up so she was sitting in his lap, gazing right into his ice cold grey eyes, which held so much warmth in them. He looked down as her, a questioning and rather puzzled look on his face.

"I thought I'd lost you." she whispered. Lucius' amused expression immediately changed to one of concern and sympathy. He pulled his wife to his chest once more, though he cupped her heart-shaped face with his rough hand to gently make her look at him once more.

"I will not leave you, ever. I will never leave you, or Draco, alone. I promise you."

He caught her lips with his in a gentle kiss, caressing her small face with his large hand.

"We're bound by such a breakable thread, Lucius. Held up so high, but we could fall at any moment. And what will happen if we do?"

"As long as the three of us are together, nothing else matters. Yes, we're bound by a breakable thread, but we will endure, so long as we are bound together."

A/N : Just a short one-shot that came to me while I was writing another, slightly longer one-shot, 'Prisoner of an Empty House'. Not my best, but I thought someone might like it. Please review so I know I'm not useless!


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